Joe Wenderoth is the author
of Letters To Wendy's (Verse
Press, 2000), Disfortune (Wesleyan, 1995),
and It Is If I Speak (Wesleyan, 1999). He is Assistant
Professor of English at Southwest State University in Marshall,
Minnesota.

July 17th, 1996

It
feels good to be punched in the face, but only for an instant.
This is
what I was thinking as I sat in this afternoon's empty dining
room. Then my
mind wandered and I imagined Wendy was in my car with me. She
said, "I'd
like you to take your fat tongue and run it from my asshole to
my clit over
and over again." I said, "I'd like you to punch me in the face."
Thus it
ran, the empty dining room filling.

February 25, 1997

Standing there waiting for fries, me and this older man. He said
to me,
"You'd think they had to grow the potatoes!" I replied, a bit
too loud,
"Daddy fucked me!" The man seemed angry– I don't think he
understood what
I meant. It's as though we were on the same field, playing
different games.
He, however, seemed not able to understand that a different game
from his
own was possible.